Snow-guard



(No Model.)

L. T. HOUGHTON 8a A. A. BARKER.

SNOW GUARD.

No. 432,408. Patented July 15, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

LEWVIS T. HOUGIITON AND ALBERT A. BARKER, OF IVORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

SNOW-GUARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 432,408, dated July 15,1890.

Application filed March 22, 1890.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, LEWIS T. I'IOUGHTON and ALBERT A. BARKER, both ofthe city and. county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Snow-Guards; and we dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,forming a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 represents aperspective view of our improved snow-guard. Figs. 2, 3, and 4E are aside, front, and plan view thereof, respectively. Fig. 5 represents avertical section through part of a roof with the snowguard appliedthereto. Figs. (3 and 7 are de-' t-ached perspective views of the twoWire parts composing said snow-guard, and Figs. 8 and 9 showmodifications in the construction of the snow-stop hereinafterdescribed. Fig. 10 is a View with the parts detached,illustrating amodification.

Our invention relates to that class of snowguards which are disposed atthe slate-joints over the surface of a roof, and more particularly tothose made from wire.

It consists of two detachable parts, one forming the snoW-stop and theother the support thereof, said supporting part being provided with ahook or spur at its upper end, adapted to be driven into theroof-boarding, and its lower end formed to receive and hold thesnow-stop, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the drawings, A represents said snow- .stop, and B its support, eachbeing made, preferably, from a single piece of wire. The lower part orsnow-stop A is bent to form the loop or body a (preferably semicircularin shape) and the shank or holding part b, the latter extending down atabout right angles from the point where the two halves of the.

Serial No. 344,980. (No model.)

receive the shank or "holding part b of step A, said shank beinginserted into the socket from the top, as is shown in the variousfigures of the drawings. Said socket is made by bending the wire intothe form of a spiral coil, having a sufficient number of helices in itsformation to properly hold the step A in position, and in order thatsaid step may be held securely therein from being pulled out it ispreferably made with the shank or holding Wires 1) I) a little apart, asis shownin Fig. 6, so as to necessitate their being sprung together infitting the same thereto, the outward pressure of the Wires therebyretaining it in position, as aforesaid.

The support B is held in position vertically by the hook or spur c, aspreviously described, and laterally by the straight portion or shank 8thereof resting in the joint between two abutting slates and by one ofthe slates of the next course above coming down over and bearing uponthe top of said shank for a considerable distance down from its upperend, as is shown in Fig. 5. It will thus be seen that the guard is heldsecurely against displacement in all directions after having been fittedand secured upon the roof, while at the same time they may be applied ina very easy and expeditious manner, as each course of slate is laid.

The step A is held in position laterally by the back corners ff thereofresting upon the surfaces of the slates. As the wire composing said stopmay be bent into various shapes to aecomplish the same result, we do notlimit ourselves to the shape previously described and shown in thedrawings, the essential feature we desire to cover being not in thespecial construction of the stop, but in the support and its combinationwith a suitable stop having a shank adapted to be fitted to saidsupport, in the manner described.

lVe are aware that it is not broadly new to make snow-guards of wire, orto make them in two parts, .one of wire and the other of sheet metal,and therefore we limit our invention to the construction herein setforth.

In Fig. 8 we have shown the snow-stop A as having only one shank-wireI), the other being made shorter and the end coiled round the other halfof the wire where the two halves come together at the back of the loopor body a of said stop.

Although the first-described construction is preferable, it will beapparent that said modified construction or others of a similarnatnreas, for instance, like the one shown in Fig. 9, made of sheetmetal or cast in one piece with a shank l) projecting down therefrom, asin the ones made from wire-maybe adopted without departing from theprinci: ple of our invention.

We claim two essential and important advantages by our construction inthis class of snow-guards, viz:

By making the snow-stop and its support in two separate parts, with thesupport of wire bent into the shape described, smaller wire may be usedfor thesupportingpart. Consequently the slates may be laid withcomparatively close joints, thereby not only rendering the roof lessliable to leakage, but at the same time detracting less from itsappearance than by the use of snow-guards neces-, sitating the slatesbeinglaid with wider joints.

The other advantage derived by the application of our invention topractice is that the lower parts or snowstops A may be applied to theroot after the slating is fully or partially done, thus rendering thework of slating much more convenient than if said stops were permanentlysecured to the supports, and it will be' apparent that the sockets,being made in the form of spiral coils, as shown, are not liable to becompressed or flattened out of shape by the feet of the slaters orotherwise, and are therefore always in condition for the 7 stops to beapplied without difficulty or inconvenience.

An equivalent of the soeket-and-shank construction may be obtained by areversal of said socket and shankthat is, the socket may be formed onthe body of the stop in place of the shank, and the bottom of thesupport provided with an upturned shank, over which said socket may befitted, as is shown in Fig. 10.

Having now fully described our invention, what we claim therein as new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a snow-guard, the combination of the supporting part ll, having ahook or spur at its upper end, adapted to be driven into theroot-boarding, with the sn0w-stop A, one part having a shank formedthereon and the other a spiral-coil soeket,iuto which said shank tits tosupport said stop on the lower end of the support, substantially as andfor the purpose set forth.

2. A snow-guard comprising the two separate detachable parts A and l),the part A,

constituting the snow-stop, consisting of the body a and shank b, andthe part L, constituting the support forsaid snowstop, having the hookor spur c at its upper end, adapted to be driven into the root-boarding,and with 6 5.

the spiral-coil socket (l at its lower end, adapted to receive and holdthe shank of the snowstop, substantially as shown and specified.

In a snow-guard, the wire-supporting part B, bent to form the hook ospur c at its upper end, adapted to be driven into the roof-boarding,and the spiral-coil socket (I at its lower end, adapted to receive andhold the shank of the sno w-stop, substantially as shown and specified.

LEWIS l. lIOUGll'lON. ALBERT A. BARKER. \Vitnesses:

W. l Nounsn, C. Foanns'r \VESSON.

